11-24, 13:20–13:35 (Australia/Melbourne), Zoom Breakout Room 3
Ten to Men: The Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health is Australia’s only nationwide cohort study of boys to adult males. A key function of Ten to Men is to provide an evidence base for research and policy that improve health outcomes for all Australian boys and men. Accordingly, monitoring and maintaining representativeness of the sample is an important activity. Wave 1 of Ten to Men was undertaken in 2013/14 and recruited around 16,000 boys and men aged 10 to 55 years.
Participant attrition is experienced by all longitudinal studies, with select analytical techniques (e.g. sample weighting) able to mitigate some of these risks. However, as a longitudinal sample matures, many studies engage in ‘top-up’ activities to ensure meaningful analyses can continue to be conducted. To address increasing attrition, the Ten to Men Sample Top-up Pilot study was undertaken in 2022 to test the effectiveness of multiple top-up methods in relation to achieved sample size, attributes of recruited participants, cost effectiveness and retention rates. This study targeted recruitment of the following priority populations of Australian men (either underrepresented or prone to higher attrition rates) including those who are young (<35 years); culturally and linguistically diverse; identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander; have non-tertiary qualifications; or live outside metro areas.
Phase 1 of the pilot (March/April 2022) tested the 3 main sampling/recruitment approaches, including Random Digit Dialling, Address-Based Sampling, and targeted social media campaigns for priority populations. Testing was also conducted in relation to communication methods and messaging. Altruistic and scarcity messaging were tested for both the probability samples, and several different combinations of messaging and imagery were tested for each target population in the social media recruitment. Phase 2 (August-October 2022) included a follow-up survey to all recruited participants to test early retention outcomes for each sample group.
This session will present an overview of recruitment and retention approaches, examination of the outcomes, and general discussion of the challenges and recommendations for top-up of longitudinal samples.
This paper is a collaboration between the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) who manage Ten to Men (TTM): the Australian Longitudinal Study of Male Health, and the Social Research Centre, our fieldwork partner for Ten to Men.
Jennifer Renda is the Senior Manager of Survey Methodology for both Ten to Men, and the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) at AIFS. Jenny brings over 20 years of research experience to her role, with particular expertise in fieldwork management, survey content and methodology development, and longitudinal studies.
Nikki Honey is an Executive Director at The Social Research Centre with extensive experience across a number of different methodologies including the management and implementation of telephone and online surveys, within both longitudinal, tracking and customised research projects.
Jessie Dunstan is the Manager of Survey Methodology for Ten to Men at AIFS, with over 15 years experience in social research. She has played a key role in the design, implementation, and statistical analyses of several large-scale national longitudinal and cross-sectional studies.